Today in History for Sunday July 20th, 2008
Happy Sunday everyone, and welcome to this edition of “Today in History” for July 20th.
Happy 61st birthday to rock guitar legend Carlos Augusto Alves Santana who was born on this day in 1947 in Autland, Mexico. In this clip taken at Woodstock (1969), Santana performs “Soul Sacrifice”:
Actress Natalie Wood, who drowned in 1981, was also born on this date in 1938. Well known for her starring role in “West Side Story”, her vocals were actually dubbed over and re-recorded by Marni Nixon unbeknownst to Miss Wood at the time. In this video clip, we get the opportunity to hear some of Natalie Wood’s original vocal tracks before they were edited and replaced:
In 1969, as the world watched breathlessly, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle on the moon and took the first steps on the moon. In this clip from NASA, we are taken through the process from the approach through the first step on the surface when Neil Armstrong first said the now famous words “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”:
For the first time in America, spectators in 1859 were charged an admission fee to see a baseball game. Fifty cents got you in to see Brooklyn play New York, and 1500 fans willingly paid the fee. Today, I’d be happy to get a hot dog for that price!
1940 - Billboard released its first singles chart, with Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra’s "I’ll Never Smile Again" taking the top slot. This video clip includes the music from the 1959 version which remains my favorite to this day. No one will ever top old blue eyes!
Leave a Reply